Chapter 491 The Victors And The Vanquished
They could have received more goals after losing one man but so far Unique FC had not found a way to capitalize on that empty space they had in their lineup now.
They had to bring on their second right back because Mateo was not to be left alone and then Foden had to be replaced by a defensive midfielder to cover both the role of helping out in midfield while covering the space that was left in one of the center backs positions now.
Rockville seemed to be doing that job pretty well because most of Unique FC\'s advances through the middle after Michael was sent off seemed to have failed and one of the ones they managed to get through, Fredinho ended up blasting it straight into Perez\'s gloves.
So far Supreme United seemed to have made four substitutions, Steve had to leave for a right back and then Rockville had to come on from Foden.
Philip also had to come on to replace Pelcao who already had a yellow card and then Carlos had to be replaced by Smoke.
Norman also made a couple of changes on his side because he needed to make sure they didn\'t mess this up.
Fred had to make way for Fredinho and then Martinez had to head off the pitch for Frankie.
Martinez was a very good defensive midfielder but Frankie equally had that good defensive capabilities and could cover more ground in a shorter amount of time which was exactly what the team needed now that they were in the last stages of the match.
"This match has just been all over the place, I was expecting a lot more but Unique FC has managed to drag this to the late eighties with their two-goal lead still intact." Jim expressed. "They just have to hang in there and victory will be theirs and Supreme United don\'t want that then they\'ll have to perform a miracle and we all love miracles."
Even after Michael was sent off, Supreme United continued to be the more aggressive side but with one person missing from their team now their threat level dropped a bit.
They managed to get off a couple of shots which Dave did quite well in stopping and even Diego managed to get into the box to link up nicely with a pass from Roland but just before he could do anything with the ball, Roland got to him from behind and managed to get the ball off his feet before pushing it to Dave who wasted no time in sending it flying far away from the goal area.
It was after that attempt in the seventy-sixth minute that Ferran had to come on and that was where things began to get tougher for them.
Norman gave Minino and Ferran the signal to start dropping back a bit more to help out in defense and that was pretty much enough to lock down the dangerous advances from Supreme United.
The match had just entered the eighty-eight minute as Frankie raced down the middle after taking off the feet of Roland with a neat tackle near the edge of the box.
"Frankie\'s charging forward with the ball now."
The home fans reacted with cheers of support as soon as the midfielder took off with the ball and he had quite a lot of space to cover down that path.
Well, that was until Zlensky rushed in from the right to try and take the ball off his feet.
That meant that he had to leave Minino alone for a while and Frankie did not miss this opportunity.
He quickly sent the ball rolling to his teammate before quickly jumping up to avoid Zlensky\'s legs.
Minino did not waste any time in continuing their advance forward down the right as soon as he got his foot on the ball.
Just as he got closer to the box, he quickly sent the ball rolling to Ferran who sent it rolling to Mateo down the left with his first touch.
"Mateo."
Mateo quickly moved past the right back with the ball in an attempt to cut in through the middle and just after moving past the defender, he found a very good space to shoot from.
"Mateo, he goes for the shot!"
However, he wasn\'t able to get that shot to the goalpost as Rockville slid into the area right on time to block the shot and send it flying toward Zlensky who wasted no time in sending it flying to Roland.
"Rockville blocks it and this could be a counterattack!"
The striker had Adolf on him, the defender was literally the only one keeping him on-side near the halfway line but he was able to nod the ball past him before quickly moving past him to get his foot on it.
He left Adolf in the dust before quickly taking off straight toward the goalpost with no other player in his path because everyone else was behind him.
"Uh oh, it\'s a one-on-one situation here."
"Oh, dear." Dave sighed.
The goalkeeper knew rushing out was the best in a situation like this where the player had the ball close to his feet so he had to stay in his box until the striker got there.
[ Sweeper keeper activated ]
[ +10 added to all stats ]
That was the moment he quickly rushed out unaware that Roland had no intention of taking him lightly.
He fired the ball straight toward the right side and he did not hold back.
There was really nothing Dave could do about that as the ball flew past him and smashed straight into the back of the net.
"And he makes no mistake!"
The striker quickly rushed to the goalpost and picked up the ball before quickly rushing back to his side while calling on his teammates to pick themselves up.
"With ninety minutes now on the clock they have closed it down to just one! What a strike from Roland, there was nothing Dave could do to stop that." Jim commented. "The question now is if they can do it before the five minutes of added time gets exhausted."
\'We can\'t throw this lead away.\' Dave said subconsciously before getting up from the floor.
The away fans were going wild now, there was finally a glimpse of hope.
There was a question from Jim on if they could tie the game with five minutes left.
Well, the answer to that question was mostly up to Unique FC.
The home team refused to take any risks, they passed the ball around after resuming it and refused to advance that much with it.
Supreme United players began to get really aggressive with the way they were chasing the ball because they really needed that equalizer and their opponents were making it really hard for them.
Something terrible could have happened in the fourth minute of added time when Minino almost lost the ball in his half but he was fast enough to push it to Frankie before crashing to the floor and Frankie did not hesitate in sending it rolling back to Dave.
The goalkeeper dragged around with the ball until Roland lost his patience but just before he could get to him, he quickly sent the ball flying out and while it was still in the air, the referee\'s whistle pierced through the air.
The second one came just as the ball hit the floor in front of Fredinho who already had both of his hands in the air and soon after the third one came.
It was over, the victors had been decided and the vanquished had to deal with it.